Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
Governor Bill Lee has released a statement asserting that the Metro Nashville Police Department is doing “a disservice” by declining state funding to add school resource officers to Nashville elementary schools.
Lee said, “We worked with the General Assembly to pass an historic, overwhelmingly bipartisan school safety package, because nothing is more important than the safety of Tennessee students and teachers.”
Shortly after the March shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, legislators approved a measure that would provide $140 million to be used to ensure that every public school in the state had an SRO.
Earlier this month, Lee told reporters that local school districts and law enforcement agencies would make the final decisions on how to use that funding. However, on Friday, he changed his tune.
“Any decision by local government to not use every tool at their disposal is a disservice to parents and teachers who are counting on us,” Lee stated.
Lee noted that the financial burden for these SROs had been removed from local governments and said that there is “no excuse not to have a guard at every school.”
According to MNPD, the funding is not the issue. They have opted not to create new SRO positions in Nashville’s 70 elementary schools because the department states that they do not have the manpower to staff those positions.
Metro Police Chief John Drake stated on Saturday that they are “invested in keeping our kids safe.” He says he has been in communication with Governor Lee and that the Governor “feels comfortable with the plans we put in place.”
Although MNPD is not planning to take the $5.25 million to create new SRO positions, they are requesting $3.375 million to fund their existing SROs in Nashville’s middle and high schools and to help with overtime payment to continue police patrols on the elementary schools.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
4 Responses
Down with the commies. Our children are but to be used for more gaslighting and dig wagging. RELEASE the manifesto and stop with the BS!
This is the reason teachers and staff should be able to carry in the schools. If this money was used in the vetting and training teachers and staff the school would be protected at a higher rate. Adding one SRO per school helps but it would be better if the number was 10 or 15 per school. Would this not be a better use of resources?
I guess we can’t have children learning that training and weapons protect them. Instead we make gun free zones that do nothing but get people killed.
Children are our most valuable resource but government chooses not to protect them. Ideology chooses politics over common sense. This leads me to conclude politicians think children are expendable.
In my area we utilize former, often, retired officers as school security officers. These officers are current agency personnel so there’s not a drain on manpower. Why can’t Nashville figure that out?
That should’ve read “not” current agency personnel.